Oakland? Yes. Art? Yes. Soul? Yes. August 26, 2008
Posted by Adrien in events.Tags: Art, Art and Soul Festival, festival, hip hop, Hip Hop dance, Oakland
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Music and art and dance and food and fun! Wooah!
The Oakland Art and Soul Festival is happening this weekend August 30-September 1.
With a line up that includes Zion-I, the Indigo Girls, Bay Area hip hop dance crews, six stages including a world dance stage, a Global Artisan Marketplace, art exhibits, and a community mural, go out and bring your friends for some art in the summer sun.
Find a full schedule at the Art and Soul website.
Oakland Art and Soul Festival
August 30, 31 & Sept. 1, 2008
Noon-6pm
$10 at door;
$5 Youth 13-18 & Senior 65+; 12 & under free
‘On the Wall’ at Galeria de la Raza August 25, 2008
Posted by Adrien in events.Tags: Art, Asian American, Galeria de la Raza, immigration, Latino, Pacific Islander, Visual art
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From Galeria de la Raza:
A new exhibition featuring artists from Galería de la Raza and Kearny St. Workshop, presenting a cross-cultural response to current immigration debates (more…)
McCain’s houses August 21, 2008
Posted by Adrien in news.Tags: election, McCain, Obama
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I just had to mention this because the media-politico machine is swooping on this like a mad dog. Here is the last 24 hours:
6:22 a.m.
John McCain Does Not Know How Many Houses He Owns. This Is Not a Joke (from Mother Jones blog)
(more…)
Hip Hop inspires politics! August 21, 2008
Posted by Adrien in in other words, signs and fortunes.Tags: Adriel Luis, election, hip hop, politics, Talib Kweli, vote
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Speaking of the turning political sway of hip hop (from the ill-literacy blog):
Generation Vote is giving everyone between the ages of 18 and 30 an opportunity to speak their mind with Vote Hip-Hop, a contest that welcomes political art in the form of audio, video, or visual deliciousness. Winners get a wad of cash, a free trip to an awards ceremony, and their work shown on a gang of websites including WireTap Magazine and BET.com!
And ohhhhh snap, Adriel’s in the lineup of judges, along with Talib Kweli, Jamilah King, Favianna Rodriguez, and Monifa Akinwole Bandele.
All you artists out there get on top of this opportunity to inspire folks into action!
Subvert fashion August 21, 2008
Posted by Adrien in in other words, reflections.Tags: Fashion, Race
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In redux of the recent post on Racewire regarding cultural appropriation in the latest fashion trends, allow me to explain how style and fashion are personal interests of mine. Not just for the fun of self-expression and image-making, but also for the creativity of others’ stylistic choices. The life that is made manifest from all walks, taking shape in whatever manner of dress that reflects a person’s various tastes, habits, and lifestyle — that is a richly colored world that we all inhabit and literally see every day.
I have to admit to reading a few fashion blogs, but I tend towards those that take a more conscious approach. Particularly those that highlight “street” fashion or “urban” styles, that attempt to highlight the fashion of “every-day” people rather than the plastic phosphorescent photoshopped fantasies sold in mainstream fashion magazines. (more…)
Asian Hip Hop Summer Tour artists August 21, 2008
Posted by Adrien in events, in other words.Tags: Asian American music, Asian Hip Hop, Asian Hip Hop Summit
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Want to know the very intimate details of the lives of Dumbfounded, Chosen One, LyraFlip, Youthinasia, and DJ DStrukt?
From angryasianman:
The Asian Hip Hop Summit Tour 2008 continues its way across the country, with shows this week in Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, St. Louis, Chicago, and Minneapolis… If the tour happens to be stopping by your town, why not check out a show? For more information about the Tour, go here, or visit the MySpace page here.
This is underground Asian American hip hop. Who are the headliners of the Asian Hip Hop Summit? We’ve got the artists profiles here, in their own words:
Appropriate me now August 21, 2008
Posted by Adrien in in other words.Tags: Fashion
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Tribal is in? Afrika? Are you kidding me?
Jonathan Adams on Racewire:
Remember the Keep a Child Alive campaign when Gwyneth Paltrow and other celebrities declared, “I am African,” and painted their faces in solidarity against the AIDS epidemic in Africa. Well, as bad as that was, it isn’t as bad as the latest craze.
According to fashion sources, “tribal” is the latest trend to hit runways and red carpets.
h/t StereohypedPorny clothier American Apparel is now hawking goods printed with an ethnic design the company calls “Afrika.” Perhaps unsurprisingly, AA has not used a single black model to help advertise the new print, despite the fact that it’s all over their Web site in dresses, leggings, bras and headbands.Orientalism seems to be hot this summer, but I hope “tribal chic” goes the way of the Ugg and the Mullet.
Hip-hop revolution August 19, 2008
Posted by Adrien in reflections.Tags: hip hop, music, politics, Rock the Bells
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Jeff Chang on zentronix:
On Saturday at the Rock The Bells festival in the Bay Area, 20,000 middle fingers were raised against Fox News.
“They are the past. We are the future,” Nas shouted from center stage, before dropping the beat from “Black President”. “We can change the world.”
Hip-hop gatherings seem lately to have been taking on the feel of political rallies or cadre discussions. Could it be that there’s a new wind blowing?
…
On the grounds at the Shoreline Amphitheatre, hundreds of kids in colorful Obama shirts roamed through the crowd. One kid wore a black tee that altered De La Soul’s “Stakes Is High” logo into a statement: “Gas Is High”.
Rock The Bells promoter Chang Weisberg said the tenor of the festival had changed since last year. “People are not happy with gas prices, they’re not happy with the mortgage crisis, they’re not happy with their life in general,” he said.
When the festival comes to Denver next week to informally open the Democratic Convention week there, it will signal the arrival of a number of hip-hop artists the likes of which no political convention has ever seen in this country.
I’ve heard a few hip hop scholars talk that hip hop is going to be the means of social transformation for our generation. I believe in the radical transformative power of hip hop as a means for social change. (more…)
Goh Nakamura releases ‘Ulysses’ August 19, 2008
Posted by Adrien in events, sightings.Tags: Asian American, Asian American music, Goh Nakamura
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Goh Nakamura is a Bay Area-grown artist/musician. He has good music.
His new album Ulysses will be released tomorrow and he’s holding a release show par-tay at Cafe du Nord tomorrow night. Check it.
Kwatro-Kantos in Oakland now August 17, 2008
Posted by Adrien in events.add a comment
Another juicy exhibit to get your arts fix on. Filipino artist collective Kwatro-Kantos is showcasing at 21 Grand in Oakland now.
Filipino Collective Kwatro-Kantos (England Hidalgo, Lian Ladia, Marcius Noceda, Carlo Ricafort, Mel Vera Cruz) will squat on the grounds of the physical space of 21 grand in Oakland and explore it as a structure of relations both as a social environment and as a field of action. By use of paintings, sculpture, installation and video, the collective will also invite guest artist John Fortes to integrate his work with the environment that they have created. Kwatro-Kantos will be creating a morning-after-destruction, an exploration of rectitude and composition that will puzzle beurocrats.
Poeta Barbra Jane Reyes also has a keen analysis of the publicity art for the exhibit on poeta y diwata:
I feel like their artistic statement is clear as Ginebra San Miguel there: see the monstrosities we are, see us in this skull-headed Balul in Kong Kong pose. Balul as Philippine northern provinces’ rice god/fertility god. Skull-headed dead thing, hybrid/mutated thing. Also skull-headed as kind of punk rock in its visual shock value, and as well, I think it’s a play on the headhunter thing; we savage, primitive others. The artists are saying, this is what you think we are.
The artists are also saying, see how we’ve been warped, fucked up, and undeniably empowered by American popular culture.
Read more at poeta y diwata …
